The 2008 ASSU Elections may be well over, but a dispute between the two junior class presidential slates over use of the Class of 2010 email list is yet to be resolved.

During last month’s elections, The Giving Tree sent out a statement to the Class of 2010 email list informing students about the class presidents’ accomplishments. Because The Giving Tree was running for reelection, Ocean’s Oh-Ten interpreted this as a campaign violation. In response, Ocean’s Oh-Ten supporters sent out a statement to email lists criticizing The Giving Tree’s actions.

Cameron Drake ‘10, a current sophomore class president and member of The Giving Tree slate, which lost its bid for reelection, is still upset with the conduct of the winning slate, Ocean’s Oh-Ten, and the response of the Elections Commission.

“We still have yet to receive a formal apology, and I won’t stop until we receive it,” Drake said. “In this apology, the other slate has to acknowledge that they lied. An objective party is going to have to acknowledge that they lied and what they did was wrong because those are the facts.”

“Until that is a known fact, I am not going to rest. I don’t care if I have to go put fliers around campus myself,” he added.

Drake first tried to pursue the matter with Judicial Affairs, but he was told that it was up to the Elections Commission to deal with the conflict.

“Because the Elections Commission is put in place to govern [elections], Judicial Affairs won’t get involved,” Drake said. “I may not be done taking this up with the Election Commission.”

But working with the Elections Commission to address his concerns may not be easy for Drake, who has been vocal in his criticism of the body.

“The Commission is a great thing in practice, but it has obviously done a poor job,” Drake said. “It failed me and it failed our slate. The Commission really cripples the victims and leaves no recourse. Everything is supposed to be handled by the Commission, and because they didn’t do their job when they were supposed to, there is no avenue to pursue this.”

Since it will not be possible for the Elections Commission to change the results of the election, which was certified by the Undergraduate Senate several weeks ago, Drake instead intends to concentrate on reforming the system.

“I am going to lobby the best I can to see that things are changed,” Drake said.

Current Elections Commissioner Ryan Woessner ‘10 is already taking steps to ensure that this year’s events do not repeat themselves in the future.

“One of the new things I will do is work on the specific areas of the rules talking about incumbents and talking about slanderous emails sent out over the lists,” Woessner said. “This is the first time something like this has happened, and it is not in the rule book because it’s a new thing.”

Woessner, who publicly criticized both slates for their actions when the controversy surfaced on the eve of the elections last month, remains disappointed with the two junior class slates.

“The biggest thing is that we trust the candidates to follow the policies that were in place,” Woessner said, “and the type of things [both slates] engaged in broke the trust between the candidates and the Elections Commission.”

Ocean’s Oh-Ten, which won the election by 125 votes, is just eager to put the election dispute in the past and move on.

“The controversy was the result of miscommunication and a series of mis-interpreted incidents,” the slate wrote in a statement to The Daily. “We apologize to all those who have been affected by the incidents and hope we can overcome this.”